Saints owner Tom Benson and Ochsner Medical Center officials unveiled the first phase today of a $20-million cancer treatment complex in Old Jefferson.

Eliot Kamenitz/The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson gives a big laugh as his wife, Gayle, stands nearby Tuesday after he signed a replica of $5 million gift check from their charitable foundation for The Tom and Gayle Benson Cancer Center at Ochsner Medical Center in Old Jefferson.

“We are the best hospital in the city, and we’re going to tell the world about it,” said Benson, who had a small tumor removed from his kidney about 18 months ago. “This is the place to be.”

Benson, accompanied by his wife, Gayle, granddaughter Rita Benson LeBlanc and Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis, among others, delivered $5 million toward the development, which will become The Tom and Gayle Benson Cancer Center.

The genesis began before Hurricane Katrina, said Warner Thomas, the hospital’s chief operating officer. When completed, likely in the next two years, it will consolidate all treatments for myriad cancers.

“You don’t get just one physician when you come to this cancer center,” said Dr. Adam Riker, medical director of cancer services. “You get a team of specialty-trained physicians that will take care of you.”

Ochsner spokesman Lawrence Van Hoose said that in addition to the Benson’s $5 million, the hospital has raised $3 million and spent about $4 million so far on the project.

Using the winding Mississippi River as a backdrop, the announcement was made on the fifth floor of a partly renovated building on the Ochsner campus between River Road and Jefferson Highway. People needing chemotherapy will be able to overlook the serenity of passing vessels as they receive treatment. The hospital expects the center to begin receiving its first patients in July.

Construction began this summer and could take 14 months to two years to complete.